Scientific literacy in undergraduate political science education: The current state of affairs, an agenda for action, and proposed fundamental benchmarks

Abstract

Political science is falling behind a broad movement in the United States that seeks to reform the teaching of scientific literacy in undergraduate education. Indeed, political science is far behind that movement because the discipline does not have a collective commitment to science education at the undergraduate level. This article discusses prominent efforts in this reform movement and assesses the state of science education in our discipline. The authors propose an agenda for action on this issue in political science as well as fundamental educational benchmarks for undergraduate political science literacy.